All Things Considered

Commonly referred to as "ATC" and a staple for afternoon commutes, NPR's nationally syndicated afternoon news magazine brings you closer to home with the presence of WAMU's local host.

Since May 3, 1971 All Things Considered has been produced every day from NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Featuring a mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features, "ATC" produces 2 hours of fresh content every day for hundreds of public radio stations around the United States.

Elliott Francis

Local Host, All Things Considered

Francis has worked alongside some of the most influential media executives in the U.S. during his 25 years as a news anchor, including FOX News President and Chairman Roger Ailes, former CNN Executive Vice President Ed Turner, and the founder and former CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, John H. Johnson. In 2002, shortly after joining the ABC news affiliate in Washington DC (WJLA-TV) as the morning co-anchor, Francis was thrust into the rigors of live, non-stop coverage of the DC sniper shootings and investigation, sometimes speaking 8-9 hours unscripted. A skilled interviewer, Francis once convinced singer John Denver to go "on-camera" with details of his upcoming DUI trial.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

A doctor who authored the book Wheat Belly claims that changes to modern varieties of wheat have have caused the rise in celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. But other doctors have other theories to explain why wheat makes some people sick.

City officials are planning to remove a large homeless encampment on the outskirts of downtown. The California city, where 1 in 4 people live below the poverty line, has taken down three other large encampments in recent weeks. The moves have been controversial and displaced hundreds of people.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

New York University's new Shanghai campus is the first Sino-U.S. joint-venture university. Chinese students get a Western education without leaving home. American students get to live and study in China, with many enjoying big breaks on tuition and other costs.

The Malian singer-songwriter finished her latest album, Beautiful Africa, just as war was breaking out in her home country. Traoré says that working as a musician has helped her make peace with a conflicted sense of cultural identity.

Robert Siegel talks with Eric Deggans, outgoing TV and media critic for The Tampa Bay Times and incoming TV critic for NPR, about the fall television season. Deggans says a lot of the shows may be new, but they're not entirely original.

Brazil is formulating a bold new plan to protect itself from NSA spying after revelations that the U.S. illegally listened in on conversations between the president and her cabinet, and spied on the state oil company, Petrobras. But experts warn its easier said than done and there are risks inherent with tampering with the internet.

The damage from flooding in Colorado is immense. As the raging rivers overflowed, they spilled into low-lying farm and ranch land wrecking costly equipment, dismantling irrigation systems and stranding livestock. In the near future, it'll be hard for farmers to remain optimistic. Still, as the waters recede, there may be a silver lining to the excess rain further down the line.

Everything former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says gets a tremendous amount of attention, even if she says virtually nothing, says strategist Geoff Garin. And that's not likely to change as the 2016 presidential race gets closer.

Secretary of State John Kerry signed the International Arms Trade Treaty meant to stem the flow of weapons that have fueled civil wars and atrocities. Activists hailed the move, saying it could put the U.S. in a better position to lean on Russia to stop arming Bashar al-Assad's regime. But the Obama administration will have a tough time getting the Senate to approve it.

Melissa Block talks to Keith McShea of The Buffalo News about a western New York high school that canceled its varsity football team's season after the death of one of its players, Damon Janes. The 16-year-old running back sustained a severe head injury during a game and died three days later.

The Senate took the next step on its weeklong road to passing a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown next week. The legislative movement follows on the heels of a 21-hour talk-a-thon by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is hoping to defund Obamacare.

The earliest recordings of sound are physically deteriorating, but thanks to physicist Carl Haber they no longer need to be handled to be heard. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist is one of 24 winners of the 2013 MacArthur Fellowship. He talks to Melissa Block about his work.

Robert Siegel talks to Joshua Pollack, a consultant to the US government, about concerns that North Korea has or could soon have the tools to make the centrifuges to enrich the uranium to make the atomic weapons without having to import key elements in the process. Pollack studies arms control, proliferation, deterrence, intelligence, and regional security affairs. He also writes for the blog Arms Control Wonk.

Now that the siege at the Nairobi mall has ended, investigators are trying to determine the identity of the attackers, just exactly how many people died in the four-day standoff and how it could have happened.

Robert Siegel talks with Kenneth Pollack about Iran, President Rouhani's Tuesday speech at the UN and how the U.S. should regard him. Pollack is a former intelligence analyst and in his new book, Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American Strategy, he argues for a Cold War-style policy of containing Iran.

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